He saves her twice
by HolyMaiden24
Summary: One time Captain Underpants was there for her and one time Benjamin was there for her. Egg Casserole two-shot.
1. Chapter 1

**First part: a cute series of romantic moments hidden under the guise of the 'villain of the week' story.**

* * *

If you lived in a world where large robot toilets and scientists with unfortunate names could appear at any moment, odds are that you're bound to encounter more oddities, especially if you worked at one particular school. Such days happened for Edith, but there rarely was a day where she ended up getting involved. This day was an exception to the norm.

It started out normal enough–it was lunch time and the kids were either in the process of finishing up their food or else already out on the playground for recess. She watched them all relax and let loose all the energy that had been built up during class time–it was here that they all could truly be happy and free to do almost whatever they wanted when they were away from the eyes of other adults. Whatever they did here was a secret between her and them unless they did something to warrant detention or–even worse–a trip to the principal's office.

The only downside to this time period was that it prevented her from eating with the teachers and staff who hurried to the teacher's lounge for a moment of kid-free peace. It limited her chances of interacting with them, but most of the adults here tended to be apathetic or a little too harsh for her liking and she rarely had any idea of what to talk about with them. The only other adult she would have wanted to talk to and was comfortable with talking to was either with the others or probably alone like her in his office. She wished they had more chances to meet up during the school time, but busy schedules and a watchful eye for those who would probably disapprove of them together limited how much time was allowed.

She kept an eye out for the kids and waited until she knew for sure she could start cleaning and organizing things. It had to be sooner if not later.

The peace was suddenly shattered by a voice from the outside, as if someone was yelling into a megaphone.

"HEY JEROME HOROWITZ ELEMENTARY! CHEW ON THIS!"

The whole cafeteria went momentarily quiet and Edith raised her head up in confusion as strange sounds erupted from outside the school. Moments later there were several children rushing in and yelling their heads off.

"SOME WEIRDO IS MAKING MONSTERS COME ALIVE!" One girl screamed and that was all the kids needed to know before rushing away from the doors to the outside and many already hurried through another set of doors to the main hallway.

Right on cue, strange misshapen creatures came hurrying after the children from the playground. Creatures that looked twisted up and varied between light pink to white to tar-like black. In the back of Edith's mind, they reminded her of something, but her instinct was to protect the kids first. Without even thinking too hard on it, she grabbed the nearest frying pan and hurried out of the kitchens and into the danger.

"GET SOMEWHERE SAFE!" She yelled at the kids as she readied her makeshift weapon and some of them had already ran out of the cafeteria while others were only just registering what was happening and darted away from the tables while scattering food, trays, and lunch bags everywhere. The moment the creatures came up to her, she braced herself and smacked one of the black ones as hard as she could, causing it to fall over. In its place, another came and she had to repeat the move before hurrying to a white one that was trying to drag a child by the arm outside.

"Oh no you don't!" She growled and smashed the pan onto its head, though unlike the black one, this one felt a bit soft and it took another whack to the head to get it to stop. The moment the creature fell over, she reached for the boy it was grabbing onto before and pushed him away. "Get help!" She told him as he hurried away before she could hurry to prevent another from going after a third grade girl.

She wasn't a fighter and was never one to get into a fight but she knew that she could not let these things harm the kids as more of them kept coming into the cafeteria–some of which she couldn't stop and were already trying to get into the hallway. She couldn't afford to think, but she could act.

"Just go somewhere safe!" She told the girl after whacking a black creature away from her. Without watching to see where the girl would run off to, Edith turned her attention onto a few more creatures and hurried after them at the exact same time the doors to the hallway bursted open.

"Ok, they were coming from outside!" Harold explained as he and George had opened the doors to reveal that Captain Underpants was with them and already in his usual attire (or lack of). Given how fast they had to run from off the playground and into Krupp's office and back, they were panting for their lives. "We're almost–" He stopped as he and George looked at what was going on and gapped as the girl ran past them. "Is... that...?"

Edith yelled as she smacked her pan into the creature as hard as possible before throwing her arm back to hit another one–the action hurt her arm, but she had to force herself to slam the blunt object upon another head before she could have a moment to look around to make sure no other children were still in the cafeteria..

Instead, she saw something that she should have predicted–George and Harold with their superhero friend behind them. All three were most likely going to whatever was going on outside, yet both the boys were staring at her in complete surprise as if they didn't expect the school's lunch lady to be actually fighting off a monster like she was Wonder Woman rather than cowering somewhere like most of the other teachers would have.

Yet neither of their expressions were as noticeable as Captain Underpants himself–for one moment that endless energy dialed back a bit and he was staring at her in awe and something that looked like respect.

"I GOT THIS SPOT YOU CAN GO AHEAD!" Edith yelled at them. The boys didn't need to be told twice and made to run for it, but when they realized that Captain Underpants was still staring at her, George was the one who had to go back and grab him by the wrist before pulling him outside where most of the chaos was occurring.

Meanwhile, Edith was forced to face a few more of the strange creatures and gradually they lessened in numbers until finally she came across a pink one and attempted to smack it.

To her surprise, the pan stuck to the creature instead of causing it to fall over.

In a panic, she tried to pull it away, only for it to pull the creature alongside her as it tried to grab onto her. Not knowing what was going on, she had to hurl it into a wall where it stuck to the surface. She watched as it tried to reach out for her, but could barely budge and it still had her pan attached to it.

Edith then realized what that stuff reminded her of. It didn't make sense until now–those things were like chewing gum. The kind that people carelessly left on the streets where the sun blackened them until they could be hard to remove. The kind that kids tended to leave on the asphalt, concrete and brick walls, or under the desk, to the anger of most teachers but especially to the janitor and those who were expected to keep the grounds spotless. The kind where, rumor had it, one rather very brave or very reckless sixth grade girl intentionally flicked a chewed up piece into the toupee of the school's principal and was forced to scrape the gum off from under all the school desks in every classroom as punishment.

Edith turned around in time to see another creature coming right after her. She dashed to her station in hopes of getting another makeshift weapon (or two) and just as she reached the door, she heard a strange sound, like bacon sizzling in a pan.

When Edith turned around, she was met with the sight of the creature wobbling as it seemed to bubble up at the bottom before it fell over and collapsed. She had no clue why as she tried to make sense of it and stared at what looked like a sandwich on the ground that it was partly touching.

"OK THAT'S IT! I'M GETTING REAL SICK OF YOU THREE!" The voice from outside screamed. "ESPECIALLY THE FLYING PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR AN UNDERWEAR MODEL!"

Seconds later, all the creatures began to tremble–all but the one that had recently collapsed–and to Edith's horror they all got up and more of the pink creatures hurried out of the hallway and towards the group. Before her eyes, they began to merge together, with the pink creatures keeping the others securely in place until they began to form some sort of gum goliath that was twice her size.

 _Oh joy._

Edith raced into the kitchen to try to find something as fast as she could, but nothing looked good enough to fight such a thing. As she frantically looked through the pots, she found herself wishing that she could get rid of that thing as easily as you could get it out of your hair with–

–Wait.

A sandwich kept one of them from getting up–the one that was still on the floor.

No, it couldn't be that–could it?

Edith abandoned searching for a weapon and hurried to the large fridge before pulling out what she was looking for–a jar filled with something brown and sticky. It wasn't her that was going to need it though, so she hurried towards the doors to the playground as fast as she could.

Without warning, something latched onto her glove covered hand and when she turned back, she saw that the gum goliath finally caught her and wrapped part of itself around her wrist as tight as it could with the pink gum. "Oh no!" She tried to pull away from it, but to her horror she realized that she could not.

* * *

If things had been chaotic enough outside, they were bound to get worse. George, Harold, and their superhero friend had tried their best to fight off all the gum creatures, but not only did the mastermind behind them somehow made the creatures merge together, but all three were stuck to the ground.

"You know, I enjoy spending time together with you, but this is ridiculous!" George confessed to his best friend as he and Harold were trapped together with a huge wad of gum around their legs, which also was stuck to the ground.

"She even got it in our hair!" Harold complained as he tried to pull some of the gum off of his hair where it stuck, but it would not budge and every tug only hurt his scalp.

"What sort of diabolical trickery is this?!" Captain Underpants not only had his feet stuck to the ground, but there was a huge wad of gum that trapped his fists together and no matter how much he used his super strength it would not break apart. In fact, when he tried pulling his hands free, they only snapped back together.

"Man, you were all a lot easier to defeat than I thought!" A young woman–who only referred to herself as Lady G.B.–taunted the trio from a small, pink hot air balloon (though there was no fire) with a strange mechanical contraption aimed at them. Her attire and hair included a spectacular shade of bubble gum pink (enough to make her look like a cos-player who went a little too much on the color), but her demeanor wasn't as fun or bubbly as she initially appeared. "I was almost wondering if I should have even bothered with all the effort or not!"

"What the heck, lady?!" George yelled up at her. "Did we do anything to make you mad?! Harold and I don't even know you! We know we tend to bring in some bad guys on accident, but what's your deal?!"

"I don't know you and I could care less, but I'm sick of everyone leaving their gum behind on the ground or in places they shouldn't be, and schools like this are the worst offenders!" Lady G.B. spat in-between chewing on a piece of gum. "You all are giving gum a bad name! So I think teaching you all a lesson will make a nice warning that'll sick in your minds, or else I'll carry out what I'd like to call 'world gum-ination!'"

George, Harold, and even Captain Underpants stared at her in disbelief.

"That makes no sense!" Harold protested as George tried to decide if her puns were good or not. "You don't want people leaving gum around, but you're ok if it goes everywhere for your plan?"

"I DIDN'T SAY IT HAD TO MAKE SENSE!" Lady G.B. snapped.

"It's stupid! And I happen to like gum, but even I find this crazy!"

"Well, it's thanks to all you lazy kiddos with your gross habits that I got an army now!" Lady G.B. grinned as she patted her machine in the air balloon. "So long as I got this baby, I'm practically unstoppable!" She pressed a button on the device to make the gum goliaths come to her.

"Well, on the bright side at least the janitor will leave us alone." George let out a nervous laugh. "But I could go for a deus ex machina right now because I'm out of ideas!"

"Never fear sidekicks, I shall pull myself free!" Captain Underpants declared as he tried to fly up into the air, causing the gum on the ground to stretch a few feet before it predictably pulled him back and sent him flying face first onto the hard ground. "As fast as I can!" He moaned and tried to reassure them as the two winced for his pain.

Lady G.B. hummed as all the gum goliaths came to her, but then something caught her attention–one of the goliaths accidentally took a hostage who was now stuck to it.

"LET ME GO!" Edith hollered as she tried to pull free while cradling the jar to her chest, but it was hopeless as she was always pulled back into the creature.

"I was not planning that." Lady G.B. confessed with a frown as the creature and its hostage came closer towards the others.

When Edith noticed the trio she called out "BOYS! B–!" She stopped herself right in the nick of time before revealing Captain Underpants' true name. "CAPTAIN!" George and Harold looked at her, but it was her voice that managed to finally make Captain Underpants raise his head up and he felt his heart stop for one second when he saw that it was Edith who had just been captured and was currently in great distress.

He did not know Edith for as long as he would have liked–it was sometimes a miracle that he'd ever see her when he was fighting crime or trying to protect this school, and even more so when he wasn't, like trying to go undercover in the disguise the boys gave him or other little moments here and there that passed as quickly as they came. He didn't know why, but something about her always drew him to her (Was it her beautiful blue eyes? Her sweet smile? Her pleasant, genuine laughter? Her sweet, yet also fun personality?) and thinking about her always made him happy as well as make the world around him a bit brighter than it already was. Yet seeing her in trouble with a look of panic in her eyes not only created a sense of alertness that came from protecting the boys and the children, but something else was awakening something deep down within him. There was fear, but it was something more... something that made him terrified and angry all at once and made him focused on her and only her in that moment.

"USE THIS!" Edith maneuvered the plastic jar in her grasp before hurling it as hard as she could at the boys. It made perfect contact in the gum that was stuck to their feet, just as the gum goliath hoisted her up into the air.

"What are you doing?! Put her down!" Captain Underpants yelled as Harold and George looked at the jar and realized what their lunch lady just gave them. They gave each other delighted grins before Harold unscrewed the lid and scooped out some of the brown stuff to smear around his feet.

Edith yelped as something grabbed onto her wrist and she found herself getting pulled away from the creature. However, she was now being pulled several feet up into the air and even high above the school itself by a huge strand of pink gum before it trapped her against the side of the hot air ballon.

"Hmm," Lady G.B. stared at Edith in curiosity as Edith panicked and tried to grab onto the side of the hot air balloon because she could already feel her hand slipping slowly out of the glove. She blew a bubble with the gum in her mouth before cracking it. "What do we have here?" she asked without having the decent sense to pull Edith into the basket.

"Look, you don't need to bring a civilian into this!" Captain Underpants was panicking as he began to worry for Edith's safety and tried to pull himself free with more force than before, but it was no use and he ended up slamming back onto the ground once more. Meanwhile, George and Harold finally succeeded in getting themselves free before hurrying to the waistband warrior's side. "Gah! Why did it have to be gum?!" Captain Underpants was getting frustrated.

"Hang on, I think I have an idea!" Harold reassured Captain Underpants as he scooped out more of the brown stuff and smeared it on the gum that trapped the adult's hands together. Within moments, the gum began to bubble up and get warm before it lost its stickiness and the hero was able to pull his hands free.

"Well I can't blame it if it wanted to get you because you're the cutest thing ever." Lady G.B. grinned at Edith who was still trying to hang on for dear life. "I mean, maybe you just happened to get stuck to it, but I don't have much control over that."

If Edith wasn't struggling for her life, she would have smacked her head on something in frustration. She wanted to help and she ended up becoming a damsel in distress! Also this woman wasn't even realizing just how far up in the air she was!

"Ok, ready?!" George asked Captain Underpants as he and Harold held both ends of a pair of underwear (the unlimited kind, thank goodness) and angled themselves at the balloon. "Aim for that machine thingy!"

"You got it!" Captain Underpants saluted before grabbing the jar, placed it in the center of the makeshift slingshot, took aim, and pulled as hard as he could before letting go which caused the jar to go soaring up into the sky and defied all laws of gravity by not slowing down. The jar perfectly crashed into the machine to the point that it got inside and almost instantly pink sparks began shooting out of it.

"WHAT THE–?!" Lady G.B. had to duck as more sparks shot out of the machine before there was a series of popping noises and a crack before it died down. Once it happened, all the gum goliaths toppled over and collapsed to the ground within moments.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY MACHINE?!" She yelled at the trio.

"You just got defeated by peanut butter!" George exclaimed before he and Harold laughed hysterically. "The one thing that gets rid of gum!"

The situation for Edith was not as funny and was about to get much worse.

Edith felt the gum's hold on her loosen almost instantly. She had only a spilt second to feel her hand slide out of the yellow glove before it came out and she tried to reach up to grab something, but it was too late and she found herself falling down towards the ground.

She screamed as she felt the wind rush around her, blowing her hair upward, making her dress flap around her legs and making her apron fly up. She wasn't aware of the world around her anymore other than that she was going to fall and there was nothing below to cushion her. She felt like she was going to be sick to her stomach and she shut her eyes in terror for what was to come.

But luck (and perhaps something more) was on her side, for Captain Underpants had been ready to go after her even before she was going to fall. Without thinking of anything else, he took to the sky the second she started to fall, with arms out and ready for her.

Somewhere about three quarters of the way to her certain doom, Edith felt a pair of arms wrapping themselves around her before she was nearly crushed against Captain Underpants' body and they came to a slow stop.

Her screaming came to a slow stop the moment she stopped falling and her stomach lurched again before she could dare open her eyes to see that she was hovering several feet in the air somehow, which confused her at first. She could see the boys watching her and she could tell by the way they had tensed up that they had been frightened–they had ceased laughing when they realized what was about to happen to her.

Edith turned her head to see Captain Underpants let out a sigh of relief before smiling a huge smile as he continued to hold onto her with no intention of letting her go until she was back on the ground.

It took her one moment to realize what just happened–he caught her almost at the very last second.

Edith shut her eyes in relief and wrapped her arms around his neck before burying her head into his neck and collar bone. She was trembling so much–she didn't even realize how bad her hands were shaking–she was so close to having something bad happen to her and yet–

"Hey, it's alright." Captain Underpants' voice took on a soft, gentle tone as he reassured her. "I was able to get you. Everything is going to be fine." He tightened his hold on her, but not to the point of squeezing her to death–he gave her enough room to breathe. "It's going to be fine." He rubbed her back a little with one hand in an attempt to help ease her.

There was none of the over-the-top bravado in his voice in that moment, but the gentleness in it was calming and familiar to Edith. It was a tone she didn't get to hear often enough, but with her eyes closed she could almost believe it was Benjamin as himself that was saying those words and holding onto her like this, and not his counterpart. She didn't care who was in control right now–all she wanted after that awful experience was to hear his voice and know that she survived to hear it for another day.

Though of course the villain of the day was still yelling at the boys and she didn't pay attention to what had been going on for that same reason. It was pointless because their attention had been on the rescue for most of that time.

"–DOLLARS! THAT'S HOW MUCH IT COSTED ME TO MAKE THIS! AND I'M NOT GOOD WITH MACHINERY TO BEGIN WITH! ALSO I'M ALLERGIC TO PEANUTS SO I COULD HAVE GOTTEN REALLY SICK THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!"

Both Captain Underpants and Edith snapped out of their moment to see that Lady G.B. was still there. Edith had a moment to think before she moved around in the superhero's grasp and maneuver herself before she was able to take her shoe off. "How much you want to bet that balloon will pop if you hit it?" She asked.

"It'd be worth a shot!" Captain Underpants grinned as he took the shoe and, with careful aim, hurled it at the balloon as hard as he could.

To make a long story short, it worked; The balloon bursted into pink strands the moment the shoe broke through it.

Lady G.B. had little time to realize what happened when she herself got covered in the remains of her vehicle and she herself began to scream all the way down. Fortunately for her, her opponent was able to have the sense to fly to her basket and grab it in the nick of time. Unfortunately for her, she was trapped in her own sticky mess and was unable to escape when Captain Underpants set the basket down.

"Ok you know what?!" Harold shared a grin with George before they looked up at Captain Underpants and Edith, who was still being held by the former. "That was awesome! Well, not you almost falling to your death, but everything else was!" He told Edith, who was not offended.

"Yeah all her plans popped!" George snickered, earning him a groan from Harold. Seconds later, they heard a familiar siren sound in the distance that made at least three of the four worried when they knew what it meant.

"Oh, huh. I guess one of the teachers might have called the cops." George bit his lip before he and Harold turned to the adults. "We'll try to take care of things and stay with her. You better, uh, go hide on the roof of the school for awhile or something... we'll meet up with you later to do the you-know-what with the water." He looked at Edith as he said that last part.

"That I will do!" Captain Underpants saluted the boys before he tossed Edith up in the air, which nearly scared the boys as well as Edith, but it was only a couple of feet so that he could hold her in the much more comfortable bridal style. He then flew over to the roof, while still carrying Edith, who only tightened her hold on him.

"Wow, he really went after her." George recalled what happened. "That was almost scary."

"You don't think the cops'll ask for Krupp?" Harold asked as the villain trapped within the gum moaned and cried out while trying to pull herself free.

"We'll just say he got stuck somewhere in the attack if they do." George shrugged.

"Ugh, can we stop it with the gum puns?" Harold groaned as he held his face in his hands.

"Well it's true isn't it? He literally did get stuck."

Realizing how true that was, the boys burst into laughter together. "Oh my gosh, you're right!" Harold snickered.

* * *

It was on the very top of the school building that Captain Underpants gently set Edith down. She almost stumbled in the process of being returned to solid ground, but she was able to get her bearings and stand upright.

 _I was flying._ She realized only now to her amazement. _I was flying through the air. I was saved by a superhero..._

When Edith was a child, there was some romantic appeal to that type of fantasy, but as she got older she didn't think anyone in their right mind would see someone as awkward and shy as her as the kind of love interest a superhero would go out of his way to save from danger. And yet...

"Um," She finally turned around to face the superhero, who was still hovering a few inches off the ground. "Th-thank you for saving me back there." She stammered and felt herself blushing. She smiled an awkward smile as her eyes shyly shifted to the side. "I'm sorry I–"

Without warning, Captain Underpants finally returned to the ground and scooped her up into another hug. It almost startled Edith as his arms wrapped themselves protectively around her and he hugged her as close to him as possible.

"Uh," Edith was unsure what to say. "I–"

"I was scared." He buried his head into her right shoulder as she detected a slight trace of fear in his voice. "I don't know why, but suddenly I was scared like I was going to lose something really, really important. I didn't like that feeling, but if something happened to you, I–" He tightened his hug as he let out a deep sigh–he didn't know how to explain it properly. "I just had to save you and it was all I wanted to do."

Edith's eyes widened at this. Captain Underpants was supposed to be a fearless being who wouldn't stop in the face of danger, even if his own safety was at risk or even if he couldn't tell reality from fantasy. He was the part of Benjamin who was free from the burdens of everyday life, who would laugh if you told him something was impossible and would go on to do whatever he wished. He was supposed to be a made up child's dream who came to life, and yet this confession that she didn't expect suddenly made him more human-like. More Benjamin-like.

She only smiled and closed her eyes as she returned the hug and wrapped her arms around him–practically melting into his embrace like warm chocolate. There was this strange softness about him that felt soothing and made her feel safe. "You did though." She told him. "I got to live to see another day thanks to you."

She frowned and let out a weak laugh. "I didn't mean to be the damsel in distress. I was trying to help and look where that got me–dangling several feet in the air on the basket of some crazy person. Maybe I'm just better off as a bystander–"

"Hey don't say that!" The superhero moved away from her but still held her arms as he looked her in the eyes. "You were incredible back there! I wouldn't have thought of that idea to stop her! You saved me and George and Harold when we were stuck and you gave us a way to save the day! You made things easier for us! I should be the one thanking you!"

Edith stared at him in awe before she smiled. "You're welcome." She grabbed one of his hands and gently squeezed it. She recalled exactly what happened and let out a snort of laughter. "Oh my goodness!" She started to really laugh as she put everything together and ended up falling back into his chest but quickly grabbed his arms in the nick of time.

"What's so funny?" He asked with a smile.

"I just smacked some monsters made out of gum with a frying pan!" She laughed. "And then I helped stopped them with peanut butter!" She could not believe the insanity of the whole thing, like it was out of a children's book where anything could happen, and yet that's what you had to expect in this rather strange world she inhabited. "With _peanut butter!_ How many people can say they did that?!" Her grip tightened as she began to laugh until she felt herself on the verge of tears and even smacked her forehead against his chest. "Do you have any idea how funny that is?!"

"I guess that would be pretty funny!" Captain Underpants agreed and began to laugh with her. He enjoyed hearing her laughing and seeing that she was in good spirits once more made him happy.

It was awhile before they both calmed down and Edith wiped the tears from her eyes. Another thought occurred to her and she realized that there was something she had to do–it was pretty much a requirement at this point. "Well, I suppose I'm forgetting something." She admitted as she looked up at him. "I owe you something important."

"Wha–?! No, you don't have to give me anything!" Captain Underpants nervously protested with his hands out. "Just seeing you safe is a reward enough for me."

"Oh trust me, it's one small thing." Well, she supposed there was one damsel in distress cliche she didn't mind doing. She moved close to him and she raised herself up on her toes a little before gently placing a hand on one of his cheeks and kissed the other as gently as she could.

The superhero did not expect this gesture and when he realized what was happening, his mind instantly became a blank and his eyes widened in surprise as he stiffened up.

Edith let her kiss linger for a few seconds before she could finally pull away and smile again. As she did, she saw the look on his face–mouth slightly opened, eyes wide, and completely rendered to near speechlessness much like when he saw her face fully exposed that one time. It was moments like these where he just stopped being a bundle of excited energy and had no clue what to do, and it was actually pretty cute when it happened.

"Oh uh," Captain Underpants stammered as his face slowly began to turn pink. "I uh–" He let out a nervous, excited laugh as he began to fly off the ground a few inches. "Th-that I'm alright with!" He grinned as he held the cheek that she kissed and his blush deepened. Oh lord could this man get any more adorable?

"No, I mean–that's not right, it's more than 'alright!' I uh–heh!" He nervously laughed as her smile widened and (in his opinion) grew more radiant and wonderful to behold. "That's a–heh heh!" He tried to fly away in his state of excitement–only to smack right into one of the metal air conditioning boxes nearby, making him fall onto his back.

Edith winced as she hurried towards him. "I'm ok!" He laughed as he tried to reassure her. "I'm more than ok! I'm spectacular! And you're spectacular, Edith!" He threw his arms out was wide as he could and smiled that huge smiled of his.

She let out a sigh of relief. "Well, I need to make sure you're ok too." She held her hand out and when he took it, she helped him get back up.

* * *

Eventually the boys finally rejoined them and, after careful maneuvering around the school and Edith distracting Anthrope as best as she could from seeing George and Harold sneaking Captain Underpants into Krupp's office, everything was on track to returning back to the way it was supposed to be.

"Ok, you can take the rest!" George waved at Edith and Captain Underpants. "See you next time!"

"Yeah, bye!" Harold added before he and George went out and shut the door behind them.

Edith waved back with a smile before turning around to see that Captain Underpants was putting on his counterpart's clothing with _much_ visible and uncomfortable reluctance. Almost everything was complete, though he had yet to put the black toupee on and he was struggling to correctly put the tie back on, but he didn't know how to properly do it. "Here, let me try." Edith went over to give it a shot and Captain Underpants let go of the tie as Edith carefully attempted it in a slow, almost hypnotic process. She wasn't perfect, but it was a much better attempt than the last three or so from him. "Perfect." She smiled, despite the fact that he was already trying to tug at it so that it was even more looser than how she had done it.

"And then," She grabbed the black toupee, but stared at it when she saw it in her hands. In mere moments, she'd have to return Benjamin back to his old self–the one who would have to shoulder so much, whose eyes didn't stay alight for the most of certain days, who would be scowling more than smiling, and who couldn't afford to live out a fantasy nor would he dare want to (at least maybe not the one he unknowingly lived out through his other half). The true version of Benjamin would never be aware that he saved her life–that he was a hero for her for one moment–and she still could not be able to tell him at this point. She didn't know how long it could be until she could see him smiling a real smile once more or be laughing alongside her.

She wished she had a sure way to keep that light in his eyes and keep that beautiful, sincere smile on his face as long as possible. She knew she couldn't be able to change everything about him (and she wouldn't if it meant losing the best parts about him), but she wanted him to be happy and at peace more often. She wished there was a way that everything could be perfect, so that he could know about that rescue without doing something he'd later regret, and so that he knew that he was capable of doing so much more than he thought.

She ran her fingers through the black strands of the toupee as she was lost in those thoughts. They felt coarse in-between her fingers and they kept sticking up everywhere no matter what she did.

She sighed and shook her head before setting the toupee back on his head–it was crooked, but neither cared. Then she turned her head towards the cup of water and dipped her fingers in it.

"Will I see you again soon?" She turned her head to see Captain Underpants looking hopeful at her. "Maybe next time when there's not as much fighting? I mean I'll take what I can, even if it won't be much. But the bottom line is that... I uh," He blushed as he nervously rubbed the back of his head. "I hope it'll be soon."

Edith hesitated–did he know that–? She stopped herself and smiled before hugging him once more as tight as she could, with her water covered fingers angled away from him–it was almost like hugging a plush animal. "You're very sweet, you know that?" She told him. "Of course you'll see me again. You know where to find me, right?"

"Oh I do!" He replied, proud of himself for knowing that. "That is, I'll find you whenever you want to see me!"

"I'm already looking forward to it." She admitted with much sincerity as her fingers slowly moved upward. When she sensed how close they were to his head, she lightly tapped it and the resulting jolt she felt told her that the switch was a success.

"GAH!" Edith felt Benjamin's body go from soft to rigid in her arms before she could let go to let him get his surroundings. "What the–?!" Benjamin looked around with a confused look. "What happened? Why am I standing and why–?" He finally noticed who was in the room with him. "Edith?! Wait how did you–I thought you were supposed to be–I thought I saw a bunch of weird misshapen things running around the school and everyone was screaming!" He stammered.

"You might have, but it's been taken care of." Edith smiled at him. "All the kids and I are fine. I just wanted to make sure that you were alright before I have to return to the cafeteria. I'm sure you have some things to take care of in here." She squeezed his arm in a reassuring manner. "I'll see you in a bit after school." She began to head out.

"Wait!" Edith turned around to face Benjamin. All trace of his alternate personality was gone from his face and he looked as if he wanted to say something important. "Uh... thanks." He finally settled on that as his eyes drifted to the floor before he noticed something odd. "Wait, what happened to your shoe?"

Edith looked down and realized she was still missing one shoe (as well as one glove, but that wasn't important). "Well," She tried to think. "I suppose it got stuck somewhere." She cracked a smile at how literal that was. "But I still got a pair or two back home."

"But what if you step on something?! I can't let you, I should c–" He realized that he was about to suggest carrying her piggy back style back to the cafeteria since he didn't trust the floor to be safe to walk on, and see if he could get someone to help her. It surprised him that he even thought to do that, but the hard, stubborn part of him was furiously shaking his head and yelling at him not to. That part wasn't willing to let the students or the staff see him do that–to see him have that sort of compassion–and have a laugh or spread rumors about it. Also he highly doubted that he had enough energy or strength to actually walk down a flight of stairs and go right to the cafeteria while carrying her at the same time.

It made him feel frustrated about himself that he wasn't able to just do any of that. Or let himself just try to do it without worrying about what the others would think.

"Hey, it's ok." Edith smiled in reassurance to Benjamin. "I'm a tough girl. If I could handle a few baddies, I could handle the long treacherous journey to the cafeteria with only one shoe." She waved. "See you later!"

"Wait a–!" It was too late for Benjamin as she was already out of his office. He let out a sigh of disappointment. Well, he did appreciate that she went out of her way to check on him. Still, it felt like he ruined his chance to do something nice for her for today–

"Wait," He was confused again. "What did she mean by 'if I could handle a few baddies?"

* * *

 **Aw don't worry Benny, you'll get to have your moment next time. I promise.**

 **So, yeah, I've seen so much gum–especially the kind that hardened and turned black–on the school grounds as a kid. That was the inspiration behind the villain and the scenario because it felt like it would fit in the world of Captain Underpants.**

 **I was tempted to call Lady G.B. 'Baroness Bubbles' but there's already a fictional candy themed character with the name 'Baroness' from another fictional work.**

 **It'll be awhile until part two comes out. I'm still figuring parts of it out, but hopefully the wait will be worth it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note That's Super Important, PLEASE READ BEFORE CONTINUING:** So I realized that a lot of readers were under the assumption that the device used in this chapter was supposed to be a certain weapon and that gave them a huge scare. I need to clarify that the device is NOT supposed to be THAT weapon. It was never my intention to make readers assume that this chapter would involve something that's all too real and far more tragic than the other real-life issue I was trying to draw attention to. I need to be clear that this chapter is NOT supposed to be about an ACTUAL weapon being brought to a school as that would be such poor taste and highly disrespectful to the readers and anyone whose had a personal experience with such an event. And this is the last fictional world that needs such a thing to happen.

I know it won't do much, but I changed the wording of what the device looks like. (And while I'm here, I feel like it's my duty to say that if you are in school and you suspect that something is wrong or off, do not be afraid to alert someone as soon as you can. Or if you need help or you're upset over something, go seek a guidance councilor or SOMEONE who'd be willing to listen to you.)

I apologize and I hope this clears things up better.

* * *

 **Second part: What would it take to make Krupp's anger be awesome for a change?**

 ***Note, so I struggled with this scenario for a bit because it deals with something a bit more realistic and likely to happen in our world–no matter how low the chances could seemingly be–even with those CU elements still there. It's something that a lot of educators and staff on campuses have to be alert about. So, for those who are sensitive, this chapter has a potential trigger warning involving intruders on school grounds and kidnapping in general.***

* * *

As per usual, the day started out seemingly normal. It recently stopped raining and the sky was still cloudy, yet the many puddles and mud meant that everything had to be taken indoors. Such a day was rarely fun for both students and staff unless you could be really creative, as was the case for the experimental after school program.

Edith wasn't super knowledgeable about all of the choices made around the school, but she had been aware of this recent one. Because of how many parents were still working by the time school was over, this meant some students were forced to stay at the school for longer than they–or the teachers–would have liked. This, plus a school board that wasn't happy about how most of the students were doing academically, forced an equally (perhaps more so) none-too-happy principal to agree to something a bit different. The idea was that certain grade levels would be paired up–first with fourth, second with fifth, and third with sixth–for after school. The younger grades would get help with school work and have someone closer to their age to look up to as someone who could behave and follow the rules, and the older students were given something to do that would encourage good character development and keep them out of trouble.

Though of course, if you translated that into Jerome Horowitz Elementary School language, that would mean something along the lines of 'the younger students don't have to keep coming to the teachers for help and the older students will enforce the rules set upon them, thus saving multiple headaches and giving the teachers free time away from the students.' Also, the teachers took advantage of it by having it become an after school detention for any troublemaking student who would have wanted to head straight home.

None of the teachers wanted the students to hang out in their classrooms, so that honor was given to Edith and the cafeteria. She almost wasn't surprised, but she agreed to it as fast as possible before a certain principal would start protesting against it.

She didn't like hearing the mutters of 'probably hoping to get more pay', 'they'll drive her nuts,' or 'too nice for her own good' behind her back after that. She didn't care because it gave her something to she wondered if the fact that she didn't have a teaching credential or–perhaps more importantly–a substitute teaching credential could come back to haunt the teachers in all of this.

This day fell on a friday, which meant it was more agonizing for the students to stay after school, and not being allowed outside made things worse. Still, some were choosing to make the most of things by playing with a basketball or two, while others sat on a few tables and benches to gossip, discuss video game strategies or cartoon shows, do school work, or other activities. Meanwhile she was offering snacks to those who wanted them from a cart–either it was all from money out of her own pocket or else it was fruit that would have been thrown away over the week.

"Thank you!" A first grader named Caden gratefully accepted a small individual sized bag of pretzels.

"You're welcome." Edith smiled and waved as the child hurried off before she could serve another child. As she did, she looked around the huge room.

Among the children who were present, there was Melvin and, while he usually kept to himself, there was at least one student who he had been paired with who had actually taken a liking to him. The child in question was a second grader named Myrah Amer and she was apparently a Math genius–the kind who knew subjects way beyond her grade level, which should have allowed her to skip some grades if it wasn't for the fact that her grade levels for other subjects were rather normal for someone her age. Naturally she was paired up with Melvin and not only did the girl put up with his behavior, but she could easily talk about the things he also liked, which made him happy. Edith had to admit that it was nice to see the boy be happy to have a friend and truly enjoy himself with someone he could relate to–she wondered if Myrah was also as much of an inventor as he was, seeing as how often they talked about physics, machinery, and whatnot.

At one table, there was a small group gathered together–George and Harold were with a few first graders. Naturally, Krupp didn't want them involved with this after school program as he didn't want them to inspire other children to learn from them and thus force him to deal with a new generation of pranksters. Unfortunately for Principal Krupp, he had no control over when the pranksters' parents could pick them up and there was also the fact that the boys were temporarily banned from the bus due to a past prank, but he could force them to stay as long as possible for after school detention and this was the only place open at the moment. Yet instead of writing 'I will not re-write a teacher's lesson plan and fill their desk drawers with toothpaste' fifty times, they were showing off their new comics to a couple of second graders.

"F...fear not... c...ci..." A first grader named Kira was struggling to read the dialogue that Captain Underpants was saying in one panel. "Ci...cit..."

"Citizen." George patiently helped her out as he pointed to the (very misspelled) word and sounded it out. Harold paused in drawing some new pages out to watch while a first grader named Brayden had been watching him in awe.

"Citizen." Kira repeated with a bit more confidence. "I will stop the... ev...evil do...do..er. Evil doer."

"That's good!" George beamed at the child as did Harold. "You want to try another one? Or should I take over?"

"I can try!" Kira was feeling braver and looked at the next panel where the Waistband Warrior was about to face off against a monster. Much like many of the students, both she and Brayden adored the comics, but especially the actual flesh and blood version whenever he magically appeared when he was most needed. They always looked forward to seeing him, but they never realized just how close by he always was to them.

Edith smiled at this moment of help. While she understood why the boys were a cause of stress for Benjamin (and she had been on a receiving end of a few pranks herself) it was such a shame that he could not see this as two boys using their gifts to help other children learn. Instead he was likely still up in his office and would likely refuse to go down until it was close to four or unless something were to happen. Until then, she observed the children and kept her eyes on the doorway as the time ticked by and a parent would come every five or ten minutes to pick a child up.

It was about three minutes after the last observation that she saw a man peering through one of the opened doors leading to the hallway. A man with dirty blonde hair and a huge coat that was perfect for the rain, but was also oddly bulky looking for this time of year. He was looking around the room, but he wasn't exactly going towards her or any of the students.

"Uh, hi?" Edith approached him and he looked about ready to jump out of his skin when he heard her voice. "May I help you?"

He gave her a strange look for a few moments before he smiled. "Uh, is school almost over? There aren't many kids out and about."

"This is an after school program." Edith had never seen him before in all the years she worked here, so she wondered if this man was supposed to be someone ready to pick a student up or if he was intending to see one of the staff members, but he seemed to be dressed too casually for the latter.

"Oh," The man nodded in understanding. "Ok. Uh, actually maybe I made it on time. Is there a girl named Myrah Amer here? I'm here to pick her up."

"She's–" Edith started to turn her head but then hesitated. It was a requirement to have contact information with parents, relatives, or guardians of every child, and this man did not look like he was anywhere physically close to being a blood relation to the child. "I'm sorry, I think her mother or her brother normally pick her up." Edith looked back at the man and observed him a bit more. "Do you know–I mean are you a–?"

"I'm a friend of the family." His response sounded natural, but there was an odd guardedness in his features–an odd stiffness in his face.

Normally someone would inform the school if someone else were to pick up their child... right? She even had a list on hand just to be safe, and the only people who were assigned to pick Myrah up were indeed her mother or high school-aged brother. Neither of them called directly called her or someone else to say someone else would do that today.

Suddenly she began to have an odd feeling about this man–why didn't he come to her or directly to Myrah in the first place? "If... if we were told that someone would be picking her up, I'd know about it beforehand." Edith told him, although she wondered if anyone would have bothered to inform her about such a thing. Did the staff care about such things, or was it only if students were being picked up early?

"Maybe they forgot." The man continued with that odd stiffness. "Just point the way to her and we'll go."

That made Edith's heart stop.

Myrah was easily in view with Melvin–still discussing inventions and what-not with him–and Edith could easily turn and point her out to this man who should have also easily seen her. More importantly, he should have known right away which child he was looking for.

He didn't recognize her on the spot.

He couldn't call himself a friend of the family if he didn't recognize their child in an instant.

There were certain incidents this school had yet to experience as far as she knew, and it was not the kind one would automatically assume or even guess. These were incidents that would be every staff member, student's, or parent's greatest fears.

Stars above, she would take robots, being shrunken down, or monsters made out of snot over the all-too-real.

Her voice was surprisingly calm, even though her nerves were starting to shake, but it was gradually wavering when she said "I think you have that student mixed up with another girl who goes by that name."

The stiffness in the man's face hardened. "Where is she?" She didn't like that response.

"I–I'm going to have to ask you to go to the principal's office, or–" God, what was she saying? Why wasn't there another adult down here with her?! In fact, why wasn't she even given a radio?! This wasn't a child she was dealing with–she had no clue _what_ she was dealing with.

At that point, George and Harold were close enough to hear what was going on and they finally looked at Edith and the strange man. They both picked up that she was dodging his question for some strange reason.

"Just answer the question–is a girl named Myrah Amer here or not?"

"S-sir, if you won't do as I suggest, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the school grounds."

The man's eyes hardened before he let out a sigh and grabbed the handle of the door. "Great, you had to make this difficult for everyone, lady."

He slammed the door shut as he reached into his jacket and took something blue and black out, but Edith's mind was racing too fast to process anything other than the absolute worst case scenario.

"EVERYONE GET OUT OF HERE!" She screamed as she tried to grab his arm as fast as she could.

This made many students look up in alarm to see her trying to wrestle with a man for two seconds–trying to tackle him to the ground–before she was shoved away and he whipped out a large blue and gray object.

A combination of P.E. and having to deal with the bizarreness that occurred once or twice a week made many bolt it towards the nearest door out of the cafeteria as fast as possible, away from the man with the strange device that looked like some sort of science fiction vacuum. Within seconds, the man pressed a button and something black shot out of the device and splattered all over the double doors behind him.

Most of the children managed to rush out to the other doors that lead to the outside, but not all of them made it–somewhere within that short amount of time, another person appeared at those doors with a black mask with a huge hole for his eyes and a similar device in his hands.

"What the heck?! You said you had this under control!" The second man yelled at the first one as the other children backed away from him in alarm.

"Yeah, well so much for the adults here being stupid!" The blonde man snapped as he pointed to Edith while that black stuff hardened upon the doors and within its gaps and cracks. "She was onto me!"

Edith could barely process what was happening now–somehow, this man was trying to go after a student to the point that he did something to the door and had someone with him. There were also a small handful of terrified students trapped in here with her, and none of them were the one they were after–Myrah managed to get out in time, along with Melvin. Among those still in here were George and Harold, and while they were not as terrified as the others, the fear was still there in their eyes if you looked close enough.

"Well now they'll know we were after the kid!" The second man yelled. "You know how much money we were promised for this?!"

"Yeah, well–!" The man stopped before looking at Edith again. Then without any warning, he put his device back in his pocket, went over to her, and grabbed her arm before he started pulling her away.

"Wait, what are you–?!" Edith was now getting horribly confused as well as more terrified as she tried to pull back.

"You owe us a kid, so we'll just use you as compensation instead!"

It clicked for George and Harold was to what was about to happen and the same time it did for Edith, and just as the man was about to get Edith halfway across the room, they rushed over and grabbed Edith by her free arm together.

"What the–LET GO!" The man yelled as he tried to keep his hold on Edith, who was still struggling to pull away, but now with more desperate force. The added force of two boys pulling her away didn't do a whole lot to pose a threat, but her constantly pulling and kicking would eventually make it problematic for her captor.

The other man noticed that other children were about ready to go help, but he aimed his own device on them. "Hey, do any of you want to get stuck to the ground?!" He snapped at them as he aimed the device at them. "Yeah, I didn't think so!" He said when he saw them freeze up. "Hey you need help?!" He turned to his partner.

"NO, YOU STAY THERE! YOU ALREADY LET A BUNCH OF KIDS ESCAPE!" The other man yelled. "HEY YOU WANT TO END UP LIKE THAT DOOR?!" He snapped at George and Harold as they tried with all their might to pull Edith away.

"STOP!" Edith screamed as loudly as she could as she tried to hit her in his chest with her elbow, only to miss.

"Pft, they're just kids." The other man scoffed and rolled his eyes. "What's the worst they all could do?"

* * *

Sometime right before this incident went down, a certain principal was either trying to work or was lost in thought and was eager for the day to just finally be over.

Krupp finally pushed the paperwork away after failing to once again try to forget about the reason why the two most troublesome students at his school were still on campus, as well as the much dreaded possibility of owing Ribble a new desk if that drawer couldn't get cleaned out, or the delay the 'improved' lesson plans would cause.

Somewhere deep down–in a part of him he tried almost constantly to ignore and force down–he imagined her unknowingly forcing her hand into the minty smelling stuff when she thought it would hold her missing lesson plans, and found that it was kind of funny. The 'newly re-written' lesson plans were oddly well written out despite that–

No.

The part of him that had been created out of years of stress, annoyance, difficult students, too many fits of anger, and other issues he'd never be open to talking about was too fed up to care. He forced those thoughts down once more.

With a scowl, he turned his head to look at the window for a second–he honestly wished that all the adults would just come at once to pick up the kids so that he could go home, even if this gave him much needed time to catch up on work. His eyes drifted to the curtains and he had to remind himself once more that he needed to find a brand that would not magically get torn off the pole without warning. (Seriously, how did they keep vanishing and leave behind only the rings every single time?!)

Moments passed before he finally got up to walk around and he opened the door to this office. Sure enough, Anthrope had long ditched her post when she thought he wasn't looking again. It only increased his annoyance because that meant he'd have to deal with the things she usually dealt with at the last minute again.

Thankfully things were much quieter without her... come to think of it, was it his imagination, or was it too quiet?

"Mr. Krupp?!"

Judging by the familiar voice and the panicky tone, he spoke too soon.

He let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose as Melvin came rushing towards his office. "What did they do this time?" He grumbled. There was no other explanation to why the boy would run so fast like something was chasing him down.

"There's an intrud–!" The boy had to stop to catch his breath and he grabbed the doorframe to Anthrope's office before he could finally force out "THERE'S TROUBLE IN THE CAFETERIA!"

There was only so few ways that Krupp could have interpreted those words, but they were used together in a sentence he did not like and his instinct was to make a run for it as fast as he could down the flight of stairs. The moment he started hearing the muffled yelling coming from the direction of the cafeteria doors was when he reached the bottom but it was the moment he had only ran two steps that he heard one voice scream over it all:

"STOP!"

He knew whose voice that was and the way the word came out–as if the owner was terrified for her life–made something in him lose all thought as his own fear suddenly increased, along with whatever anger he could manage to summon.

* * *

It was at that exact moment that the second man had asked the fatal question.

Three seconds later, one of the thick metal doors that had been sealed up by the black stuff was forced open with a loud 'BANG,' which broke off a section of the black stuff in the process, and which made the door quite literally rip off the hinges and it went flying a few feet before crashing to the ground. No one expected it to happen and it caused most of the students to scream and duck. Even the men who trapped them were taken by surprise, and the one who had grabbed onto Edith unintentionally let her go, forcing her to stumble forward a few feet.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?!" None other than Principal Krupp forced himself through the gapping hole where the door frame was, with teeth gnashed in rage and a face almost a spectacular shade of red. "I SWEAR, IF YOU TWO–!"

"WHO THE HECK ARE YOU?!" The second man demanded as he pointed the device at Krupp.

This made Krupp momentarily lose his anger as he realized that whatever that thing was looked all too much like a certain object that was something that shouldn't be on campus. He froze up on the spot for one moment as he felt like his heart almost went into his throat and he let out a lot of curses in his head.

Who the heck was that?!

Oh God, was this another weird incident that he couldn't handle or have control over?! Why did it always have to be at this school?!

What if that thing was _exactly_ what he thought it was? The thought made him too terrified to move an inch or even say anything at that moment.

Meanwhile, Edith had one moment to realize that Benjamin was now here. If only she had been more careful with her words and then none of them would have gotten into this mess. She honestly had no clue what was about to happen, but it was only a matter of seconds until a switch would occur, right? A quick snap of the fingers and then they could all laugh about this later?

"George." Harold nervously hissed as he readied his fingers and shot his best friend a knowing look.

"HEY, DID I SAY YOU COULD GET AWAY?!" The man who previously had a grasp on Edith realized that she was not with him and he stormed up to her. This time he grabbed her and pulled her with enough force that for her it was like he was about to pull her entire arm off as he resumed his attempt to escape. It both startled and hurt her enough to let out a yelp and the whole thing happened so fast that both George and Harold were startled out of triggering the appearance of their principal's more heroic persona.

It only took one second for Krupp to look and, more importantly, understand why he had heard Edith yelling for help in the first place.

It was only one second of pure fear before something _else_ began to take over.

Now, as any student could tell you, one thing you did not want to do at Jerome Horowitz Elementary School was to get the principal mad at you. It didn't take much and, if done 'correctly,' his outbursts were an absolute terror to behold, especially if you were on the receiving end–unless of course you were someone like George or Harold, who had been used to them by now. However, if you asked the two when he was at his most scariest, they would reluctantly admit that one time it was during the infamous carnival incident as it was like he was trying very hard to restrain himself from doing something when he got angry at them–like something worse than anything they thought possible was threatening to come out of him. Like he could of torn them up into several pieces over the destruction the whole thing caused to the school if he wanted to. The sound of his voice, the way he was trembling in anger, the awful expression on his face–something _bad_ was being kept at bay.

Now despite whatever the students might of thought, there were certain rules that all educators and staff had to obey and that which protected the students from the most extreme outbursts. If a teacher acted on them, it would more than cost their job. Even those like Krupp were smart enough to know that, no matter how much they wanted to on their worst days, they could not resort to violence upon another. This naturally meant that none of the students had ever seen what could happen if that restriction wasn't forced on Krupp.

However, neither of the men who had been trying to kidnap a student knew Krupp like the students did, nor did they know that the woman they were trying to take away and who they were causing harm to in the process also happened to be someone very dear to him.

Seeing her being taken away by these dangerous men–one of whom just caused her harm–was all it took to make Krupp see red faster than anything George and Harold could have possibly done.

Just as George readied his fingers to snap them, both he and Harold felt a familiar, ominous force behind them, and when they turned around they had one second to see something arguably more terrifying than anything they could have imagined and they did not like the downright murderous fire in Krupp's eyes.

Then with a yell that in no way could have possibly been human, Krupp charged towards Edith's captor as fast as he could.

"What the–?!" The man turned around in time to see a man with a face scrunched up in rage and teeth looking more like those from a wild animal as he bellowed out the unholy sound.

A second later he found himself crashing to the floor and getting pinned by the much larger man, and he accidentally took Edith down with him.

"I DON'T THINK SO!" Krupp roared into the man's face as Edith was forced to scramble away.

"WHAT THE–?!" The shocked man was forced to move as fast as he could before a huge fist slammed into the spot where his head had been and heavily cracked the floor in the process.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN COME HERE AND–NO DON'T YOU GET AWAY!" Krupp grabbed the man's shoulder's before he could get away as Edith forced herself back up. "YOU THINK YOU CAN BARGE INTO MY SCHOOL AND SCARE MY STAFF AND STUDENTS?!" He furiously shook him as he screamed at his face.

To be honest, all the students were both scared of Krupp as well as stunned at what was happening. Even George and Harold stared in shocked silence for a moment.

"Well, so much for needing to snap." Was all George could comment before Harold turned his head to see that the other man was about to grab Edith while everyone was distracted.

"MISS EDITH, LOOK OUT!" Harold yelled and pointed. Unfortunately, this made Krupp stop and look in alarm at the exact moment the blonde man was trying to grab his device from earlier. Krupp had only one second to see the other man running towards Edith as she looked behind her before he felt something hard slam against part of his upper face and eye socket to the point it cut into his skin.

With a pained yell, the action forced Krupp to let go of the man with one hand grabbing his face while the other kept him from falling to the ground as the other man ran towards Edith, who let out a horrified "BEN!" and made to run towards Krupp, but the blonde man grabbed onto her once more.

"Stop it!" Harold yelled as he tried once again to pull Edith free before the man could get too far with her again, as did George. Both tried to pull her away, but they had neither the strength of a full grown adult or the super strength of their superhero friend to aid them. To make matters worse, the other guy came over to aid the blonde man.

"GET RID OF THEM!" The blonde man snapped and pointed at the boys at the same time their principal was able to turn around to see what was happening as one hand still covering part of his face. The other man proceeded to grab the boys by their shirts and pretty much tossed them away–right into the nearest bench–before grabbing Edith. With two men pulling at her, she was unable to pull free, no matter how hard she tried to run and yell.

This only made Krupp even more enraged as he forced himself up on his feet and let go of his face–ignoring the nasty stinging sensation, the wetness seeping out, or the swelling pain–and ran after them.

"Run!" The blonde yelled and the two them hurried out of the doors to the outside, where a few additional students tried to get away as far as they could. Meanwhile, Edith was still trying her hardest to try to dig her feet at the ground–desperate for anything to brake her free.

"Come on, come on–HOLY–!"

Edith felt herself get pulled to the side as something was hurled at her captors and she heard it crash to the ground, but the speed at which she went made her slip on the wet grass, and the way she had been forced back on her foot somehow created a sharp pain in her ankle before she crashed on her back against the ground–knocking the air completely out of her in the process.

It all happened too fast too fully process it.

She couldn't breathe–it was as if something crashed against her ribcage and was pressing down on her all at once, and whatever sound she could make was not even human. The throbbing pain that erupted from her ankle made her want to scream, but she couldn't. It was almost making her lose all awareness as to what was going on around her.

"GET BACK HERE!" Krupp yelled as he resumed his chase after hurling one of the cafeteria benches at the men. The blonde man's own anger rose as he aimed the device at Krupp and readied it.

In the haze of the storm that clouded his mind, something buried deep in Krupp's head made him notice what was about to happen and then–for some reason as if he had done it several times before–he felt himself leap out of the way right before the blast could hit him and he almost slid across the grass and hit the ground before his hand was quickly forced down upon it to stop himself.

That one action almost caught him off guard–how did he even know how to guess the _exact_ moment?–and yet his body was still being flooded with an adrenaline that seemed to keep him going. A part of him knew that he should have been winded by everything that was happening, and yet somehow he _wasn't._

There wasn't any time to dwell on it and every second was now too crucial to waste. One of the men had picked up Edith again, but this time he was forced to carry her upper body while the rest of her dragged her across the ground like she was just a bag of flour. This time she was wasn't even moving, but she looked as if the blood had drained out of her face and she was gasping for air like a fish out of water while trying to not scream at the same time. The blonde man finally came over to grab the other part of her and they raced towards a nearby vehicle–the kind that a sport's mom would drive–with a door already opened for them and an engine already roaring and waiting for the getaway.

Too many awful scenarios were now racing in Krupp's head when he saw this and that odd instinct in him was screaming– _begging_ –at him to not stop.

"Go! Go!" The blonde man yelled at the driver and as soon as they got close enough, they just tossed Edith in and the second man jumped in after her while the blonde man entered through the front door by the driver.

Edith was aware of what was happening, and yet she couldn't get her body to do anything, and the pain in her ankle kept getting worse. She couldn't even muster enough strength to even get scared.

The vehicle began to move and the blonde man had entered the car, and it started to pick up speed, going from ten to forty miles per hour–

Then without warning, Krupp crashed his huge frame into the side in an attempt to grab the nearest door, causing the vehicle to unexpectedly tip at a very wide angle and for one second it was as if it was about to completely fall over on its side and crash to the ground. It would of, had the enraged principal not grabbed the handle of one of the doors and pulled the vehicle back onto all four wheels, but in the process he ripped the handle completely off.

There was no time for any of them to react when a huge fist then slammed through the glass window–shattering it to pieces–and somehow the door ended up getting completely ripped off by the large man's bare hands and tossed to the side as the brake was slammed down in the horror of the moment.

Within seconds, the blonde man found one of those same large hands grabbing him by the shirt and he found himself almost literally face to face with a face that almost longer resembled anything human-like at this point. Anger wasn't even close to what was in the owner's eyes as his tensed up shoulders rose and fell and his nostrils flared up with each breath he took, which also came out through his clenched teeth. The injury he had sustained on a face full of dark shadows and harsh lines as the blood that seeped out of the damaged skin was already darkening up around one of his eyes and furthered the terribleness of the display.

"Give. Her. Back." He slowly growled through those clenched teeth. "I don't know who you are, but you made a huge mistake. You do _not_ –" He snarled "–lay so much as a _hand_ on my students. Or my staff. And Especially. Not. _Her_." His grip tightened as he forced the other man to get closer to him. "You got that, bub?"

The blonde was both too stunned and terrified to respond back. At this point he highly doubted that the relentless man before him was an actual human being–what kind of person would be that strong?

"If I see your faces around here again, I promise you'll regret _ever_ coming within even an inch of this school _or_ this city. _Now give. Her. Back._ "

The man in the back didn't even need to be told twice as he hurried to open the door. As if he were fast like lightning, Krupp barged right over and scooped the woman in the vehicle up in his arms. If her captors had even bothered to pay close attention, they would have seen that some of the tension in his body had loosened up at the exact moment he had touched Edith, who had been quick to wrap her arms around his neck while trying to hide her discomfort for every time her injured ankle hit something, but he was still giving him a terrifying death glare even as he cradled her carefully in his arms and backed away from the vehicle.

"Now get out of my school!" He commanded–his voice like that of a dog growling before he bursted with one final "NOW!"

He backed away a few more steps as the vehicle made its getaway and he hoped to the higher powers that he'd never have to see it again.

Krupp took only a couple of moments to calm down and let the haze die out before he tried to take deep breaths despite that his nerves were shaking and his heart rate was going too fast for his liking. His face only relaxed to a more natural state when he glanced down at the woman in his arms–he could feel her hands clenching tightly on the fabric of his shirt. Her head was buried against him and he couldn't see her face, but he could barely feel her breath against him.

"I'm so sorry–I'm so sorry–" Edith voice was shaky as she slowly regained her ability to breathe, but her nerves were terribly rattled after that nightmare. "–They wanted to take a student away–they wanted to take Myrah, and I–" She messed up. She knew he was going to get more than angry at her for what just happened. "I'm so sorry, I didn't–"

In that instant, he began to put together what exactly happened. None of this would of happened if he had been there–if someone else had been there with her.

Instead, one of the worst case scenarios that could ever happen at a school somehow came rearing its ugly head at them and he had not prepared for it.

"What just happened?!" He turned around in time to see that a few parents had managed to come upon the school grounds–expecting to pick up their kids and go home without any worries–and judging by their terrified expressions, they saw almost _everything_.

"What was that?!"

"Where's our kids?!" One of them yelled at him, not knowing that they were either peering through the door to the cafeteria or were slowly emerging from their hiding places and were still shaken by what they saw.

"I... I don't..." He stammered as he tightened his hold on her. It was only then that he realized one of his hands was bleeding–the opened cuts stung and the blood was seeping into Edith's dress–and they could see it.

"Oh my God, is that blood?!"

"You need to go to the hospital!"

"Yeah I know!" He snapped at whoever it was. "I–I–look, I–where's the other staff members?!"

* * *

With not a lot of staff members left on campus, Krupp had very few people to rely on to help him out, when all he wanted was to get Edith somewhere safe and make sure nothing else would happen to her. He almost felt sick to his stomach when one of the parents who checked on her (and was also knowledgeable in medical treatment) confirmed that she had sprained her ankle and right now she was recovering in the school nurse's office. Meanwhile, his hand had some scrapes as well as cuts from breaking his hand through that window, and his face was a wreck, but he didn't care if he looked like an abomination or could barely see out of one eye at the moment.

Krupp barely even registered that the students' parents of all people were the ones who were trying to calm the children down and get information about what went down. Which meant he was eventually forced to tell Myrah's mother exactly what almost happened to her daughter, and he couldn't find it in himself to blame the child for the whole situation (maybe a long time ago, under different circumstances and a more selfish outlook, he would have, but it wasn't something he was even thinking about). Mrs. Amer was naturally horrified, but she voiced her suspicions.

"Some scientist I denied a loan from... he must of tried to–" She couldn't even bring herself to finish it or dare look at her daughter as she nervously waited a few feet away. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know it would come to this." She shook her head. "I'll contact the police about it."

Speaking of that, the cops came by yet again and they wouldn't let him get anywhere near Edith before they started drilling him with questions, and he could feel their judgmental gazes on him, like they thought they knew whose fault this all was as he was slammed with question after question when he wanted to stay with Edith and make sure she was ok after she almost got kidnapped. He had no clue how often they came to the school by this point and now it was saying a lot about the school–about himself.

He had little to no control over these unexpected moments, as well as other things he couldn't explain, nor really be able to. Couldn't they just give him a break?

It was when they finally left him alone and it seemed that no one was coming to him that he was able to cease being just Principal Krupp–to shed all those layers he had to keep up for every day he was at this school–and just be Benjamin again. He could sit down on the steps of the main stairway in the school where he was trying to hold his head in his hands moments after they were done and gone. All he wanted was one moment of peace until he sensed someone standing in front of him and he was about to snap at them as he looked up, but then he shut his mouth when he saw that it was George and Harold of all people.

Why were _they_ still here when most of the kids were gone?

 _They took a pretty nasty tumble earlier._ A very faint concern in the back of his mind thought.

"Is she–?" George began, but then bit his lip and shifted his eyes. "She's going to be ok, right?"

He just stared at them; he had no clue how to respond back to them right now. He had almost expected some smart aleck response, but not that question.

"We saw her talking with one of those guys before he covered the door up with whatever that stuff was." Harold began. "We don't know why he was here, but he was mad at her about something." He gave up. "Sorry, I guess that's not much help."

It wasn't.

"Uh, by the way." George began. "What... what happened back there with you going after them–" He hesitated "That... that was actually awesome."

This made him fully alert and he looked at the boy in confusion. "I'm sorry, what?" He asked.

"Yeah, it actually was." Harold admitted before he laughed. "I think you showed them who was boss!"

"Yeah, you almost knocked that van on its side!" George grinned as did Harold. As they realized that their principal was still giving them a confused look, they calmed down.

"Are you two... _complimenting_ me?" Benjamin finally asked in a dumbfounded tone.

"Well–" Harold realized it and was stunned. "Oh... yeah I guess we are... yeah we are... huh."

"Yeah, that's not something I'd ever expect to do." George admitted before turning back to Benjamin. "Well, I hope they catch those guys. If we had our way, they would have been stopped by now–but maybe next time."

"Well, we need to get going." Harold admitted. "Mom's about to pick us up, but we just wanted to check in on you."

Why–what?!

"See you on monday, Mr. Krupp." George waved as he and Harold turned around and started heading out.

"Wait a minute!"

Both boys turned around to see a look of extreme conflict on his face. Like he was remembering something and was trying to keep himself from saying it, but then he gave up, gave in, and let out a sigh. "I can't believe I'm about to say this... but... thanks for trying to stop them and–" he stopped before he could finish what was on his mind.

– _and thanks for giving me a chance to get Edith away from them before they could have done something to her that'd make me hate myself for the rest of my life._

"Hey, you're welcome!" Harold was able to pick up the hint of what he wasn't saying. "We didn't want her to get taken away either!"

"Wait, I didn't say–!" But it was too late as both boys shot the principal knowing grins and headed out the doors.

Once they were outside and out of earshot, George let out a deep sigh. "Oh man, the look on his face earlier! And I thought _we_ were the ones who could get him at his maddest!"

"Yeah, I'm glad the pranks we used to pull on Edith were harmless." Harold shuddered as they headed to Mrs. Hutchins' car. "Detention would have been a mercy compared to what he could have done."

"You know, do you think we could have stopped them a bit quicker if we had turned him into you-know-who?" George asked Harold who hesitated.

"You know... I'm pretty sure he wouldn't of done it as well as Krupp did this time." Harold looked at the sky–the clouds gradually parting to reveal the late afternoon sky. "Maybe... maybe it was better to let Krupp be the hero for once."

* * *

After having to respond to the police's questions, Edith allowed herself to fall asleep on the 'bed' in the nurse's office, where she could finally try to rest off the discomfort in her sprained ankle. Her ankle was propped up with a cold compress on it, as well as a bag full of ice, and the radio was playing with faint static that swam in and out while playing the 'best of' sort of songs that were usually tolerable at best. It was when she could hear someone coming in that she could pick up Alanis Morissette crooning a very familiar signature song.

" _You've already won me over in spite of me. And don't be alarmed if I fall head over feet. And don't be surprised if I love you for all that you are. I couldn't help it, it's all your fault."_

Whoever was inside the room with her snapped the radio off before walking towards her while pulling up the nurse's chair along with them, but she was sure that she could recognize who it was just by the exact sound of his footsteps. She heard him sit down in the chair before she felt a large weight pressing down on the side of the bed.

She opened her eyes a few seconds later and turned her head to see Benjamin resting his head in his crossed arms which were on the bed beside her. She could see that one of his hands was now bandaged and she could tell that he was completely exhausted. He just barely fitted his enormous frame in the nurse's chair and he was almost like a giant mountain of flesh, cloth, and false black hair resting protectively before her. It was almost hard to believe that he had been storming with fury not that long ago.

Now? It was one of the extremely rare moments where he could stop shouldering so much and could finally just relax and be human and vulnerable.

She smiled. "Hey." Her voice came out so soft as she reached out to touch his arm. This caused Benjamin to raise his head to reveal his weary dark eyes, which made her smile a little more.

He let out a deep sigh before he took her hand in his much larger one and just held onto it as if squeezing the smaller hand even once would crush it, so he held it with care. It felt so comforting and so right to her.

"I should of had someone there with you." He shut his eyes as his voice came out in exhausted regret. " _Why_ didn't I see this coming? _I_ could have been there with you."

"We–well we didn't know." Edith tried to reassure him. "As long as the students are safe, we both did our jobs, right?"

"Yeah, but they almost took _you_ away!" He sat up, while still holding her hand. She could detect the anger in his voice as well as the fear, which was all too visible in his eyes. "You have no idea how scared I was! I didn't know what was going on and then when I saw you getting pulled away like you were nothing, I–!" He screwed his face up and held his face in his free hand. "I couldn't just stand around! I had to do something!"

He hesitated as he relieved what happened against his will in his mind. "I guess I really am the worst principal in the world, aren't I?" He let out a frustrated laugh. "I thought it was going to be another stupid prank when I heard you scream–I got too afraid for one moment when I saw–!"

"Hey, don't say that!" Edith tightened her hold on his hand. "You're not being fair to yourself!"

"This isn't going to look good for me or you–I let you down!" He grew more upset at himself. "God, I'm such a lazy selfish–you got hurt and you almost–you could have been–!" He let out a deep sigh as he pressed his hand as well as her own against his head, like in some sort of prayer to make the bad thoughts go away.

Edith stared at him as she thought back to what had happened. She thought about his words to her, which sounded so hauntingly familiar... from another incident so close to this one.

" _I was scared. I don't know why, but suddenly I was scared like I was going to lose something really, really important. I didn't like that feeling, but if something happened to you, I–_

 _I just had to save you and it was all I wanted to do."_

He was afraid for more than her safety. He had to unknowingly relieve it again, only this time as himself, yet fully aware and under much potentially darker circumstances.

And yet...

"But you stopped them." Edith slowly began. "You didn't let them take me–you went after me, even if it scared you." She smiled. "You're a hero, Benny."

He gave her a confused look. "I'm... what?" He then let out an unamused snort and shook his head. "No, I'm not–I'm the farthest thing from one. I don't even look like one–I know I sure as heck didn't look like one back there–I'm not some grinning Superman–"

"No, it's true!" Edith now grabbed his hand with both of her hands and gently lowered it so that they could face each other properly. "Benjamin, you have no ideahow heroic and kind you can truly be! Believe me, I've seen it and I've seen you be capable of it even before today! You're not as bad as you or everyone makes you out to be and this proved it! Isn't it called courage if you act, despite being afraid?! And you know what? You're _my_ hero." She smiled once more and meant those words with all of her heart.

Benjamin stared at her in disbelief and awe. He had never been called that, so he had never been another's hero as far as he could recall. He knew he had done too much of the complete opposite (especially in the eyes of all the students) to even earn a title anywhere close to that one. He didn't think she'd have any faith in him after what happened and yet–

He smiled and shook his head as he moved his other hand to cover her own. "I don't know what someone like me did to even get to know someone who'd actually say that to me."

"Well, maybe someone out there cares about you as much as I do." Edith admitted as she momentarily thought of two certain pranksters. "Even if you don't know who they are."

Benjamin hesitated for a moment. "I'd ask if you wanted to go home, but to be honest, I'd rather you not be alone tonight." He confessed. "Not after today."

"Is that an invite to stay at your place?" She grinned, which only widened when a blush creeped into his face and he started stammering.

"Uh–well I–I mean–it's a complete wreck right now and–I don't–!"

Edith forced herself to finally sit upright and carefully swung her legs over the side of the bed before grabbing Benjamin by the shoulders. "I'd feel safe with you no matter where I was." She also meant that with all her heart. "And I'm used to a bit of chaos at this point, so I don't mind whatever state your house is in right now."

And just like that, his blush deepened. "I–" He let out an awkward laugh, which only increased how adorable he could get.

"Oh that's right!" She let out a laugh of her own as a wave of deja vu hit her. "I guess I owe you something for saving me!"

"Wait, what?! No you don't!" Benjamin protested, but it was too late as Edith placed her hands on his cheeks and leaned in to kiss him on the lips. Within seconds, his body began to finally relax and she began to lightly brush the pads of her thumbs back and forth in a soothing way upon his cheeks as she shut her eyes, with him soon closing his. She smiled when she felt his hands upon her hips, encouraging her to deepen the kiss a bit more. All the while, his hold was very careful and gentle–as if he made sure to not accidentally hit her foot or grab her too tight, but at the same time it was as if he had no intention of letting her go if he could.

She let the kiss linger before she parted from him. "Shouldn't every hero get a 'thank you' kiss from a person they like?" She giggled as she watched his blush deepen again.

"I–" He gave her an awkward, yet sweet smile as he nervously rubbed the back of his head. He then let out a familiar, nervous sounding laugh. "I'll just go, uh, get what I need and then we can go." He got up and headed out of the room–but not without accidentally hitting his shoulder against the doorway, causing him to let out a pained, embarrassed "Ack!" before dashing away.

It didn't matter if he was the harsh, no-nonsense principal or the goofy, fun loving superhero–deep down he was always the same sweet, awkward, determined Benjamin that she loved.

Minutes later, he carried her back to his car (much like he carried her earlier) and she tightened her hold on him. He didn't have to do this–any of it–but the moment of him being so sweet like this was what made her appreciate him even more.

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and she was able to catch a glimpse of his smile–that beautiful, honest smile she always enjoyed seeing. She found herself looking forward to spending a peaceful night at his house, even if it was just simply to relax and chat while eating take-out.

* * *

 **So I really wanted this scenario–what if Krupp–mean ol' Principal Krupp–had a moment where his anger could be awesome for a change? What if he could have a proper chance to be the hero for once?**

 **Oi, this was actually not an easy one to write out, given the rating, the possible subject matter I was working with, and making it still enjoyable to read. I only knew WHAT elements I wanted and was trying to work on that. And there was also a need to utilize as much as I could of what I had offered to me.**

 **So... I admit it's not the first time I put Edith through a foot related injury for a CU fic, but the first option felt a bit too dark for the rating, especially given what was going on. (And in case anyone is wondering, I kind of see the blonde man as the 'canon' version of that same jerk who gave Krupp so much trouble in the prologue oneshot/chapter 11 flashback of 'From fathoms below.' Except this time, Krupp was able to get back at him. Kind of).**

 **Also, 'Head over feet' by Alanis Morrisette has been one of my favorite songs since childhood, so it's a delight to finally use it in a fan fic, especially given the possible timeline of the CU 'verse in general.**

 **Whelp, I guess I need to go back to working on 'Braided together,' but I hope you enjoyed this two-shot.**


End file.
